


Care and Feeding II

by Thimblerig



Series: The Lion and the Serpent [20]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Aramis!whump, Gen, The one where Aramis and Milady are girlfriends, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, secrets and lies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 03:17:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5951761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/pseuds/Thimblerig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1. Another Morning<br/>2. Aftermath<br/>3. Afternoon</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_ Another Morning  _

She found him at last on the high steps of the church, resting among statues of saints between an apple-wrinkled beggar woman and a scrofulous wine-bibber. Wrapped in a grey gabardine, he sat with legs tucked up, and she almost walked past him for he made no sign, his eyes following all the passers-by like a curious and courteous bird.

Putting fingers to her lips, she made a loud whistle, and his attention caught on her. He gave his bottle to the people beside him, moved to the side of the steps, and leaped easily down.

"How is your head?"

He considered the question gravely. "Well enough, madame. May I be of assistance to you?"

She put her hands to the sides of his head and searched his face, fingers lacing through his hair. "Rough night?"

He answered, with an amiable leer, "The morning grows steadily more charming, madame."

"Pff."  She tweaked his ear and stepped back. "I have errands, if you would accompany me."

He fell in beside her, moving easily enough. "Carry your basket?  Procure some rouge?"

She touched his wrist as she walked, where he wore a knotted ribbon in her favourite colour. "Defend me against all comers."

He smiled. "If you wish."

There was rouge a-plenty that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rouge started as a book reference - one of Aramis' errands for his lady friends (or so he claimed). I don't mind ghastly puns because I am actually a horrible person.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, their occupation ain't all sunshine and roses.

_ Aftermath _

When she finally made it up the stairs he'd been tended to, such as it was. The maid kept up a steady stream of words in her barbarous tongue as she bundled up cloths and a basin of tepid water:  _ “They missed his pretty nose and his bones aren't cracked by some bright miracle but nobody is to be springing about tomorrow, no, not even if you are about the storming of the palace or cutting purses in the -” _

She didn't bother trying to understand it but snapped, in English, “Downstairs, Kitty. Now.” The woman fled. 

Aramis lay on his side on the narrow bed under a lightly draped sheet, knees tucked up and hands curled into his chest.

“Aramis,” she said quietly, sitting on a stool and touching his wrist. He opened his eyes to slits and tried to smile. A scab on his lip cracked and bled. 

“Hm,” she said. 

“Bumps and bruises,” he croaked. “Nothing to trouble over, Madame.”

“I trust my own judgement over yours,” she said tartly, tapping drops from a small vial into a cup of water. 

“These things... happen.”

“So they do. Poppy milk,” she said, offering the cup.

The sheet rustled as he reached out one arm and closed his fingers around the cup. She could feel the tremor in them. He tugged and she released it to him, only to see the contents poured to the floor and the cup to follow with a clatter.

“There's no shame in it,” she said, raising an eyebrow. And, “I would not overdose you.”

He shook his head minutely. “I get lost,” he answered. 

“It wasn't for nothing,” she said harshly. “Do you understand?” There was a letter in her pocket to prove that, sealed with a ribbon and a lump of blood red wax. She did not bring it out, but waited. 

After a long moment he swallowed and moved his head in a nod.

She put the pad of her thumb between his eyebrows and rubbed lightly. His eyes drifted shut. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes there's sunshine.

_ Afternoon _

The trick to tickling fish was patience: arrange oneself appropriately and let the fish come in of their own accord. Now that Aramis considered it, that was an approach that appealed to a lot of women of his acquaintance, though with a rather happier ending for the concerned parties. 

Ah, but the stillness was making him philosophical. A flicker of movement against his wrist and he acted, flipping a fistful of squirming silver to the riverbank, where his companion caught it out of the air. Wild as a wood witch with leaves in her tousled hair, Madame killed the little trout and gutted it efficiently before tossing it with the others. 

“You're showing off,” she said dryly, eyeing him up and down where he stood in the shallows of the river, stripped to his drawers to save his clothes from the wet.

Well. Perhaps his approach was not  _ all  _ patience: Aramis could not deny that he peeled well. A pity it was wasted here… His gaze strayed to where Kitty-the-Maid tended a small fire near their latest piece of contraband. 

“A flight risk, do you think?” asked Madame, speaking low.

“I think...” answered Aramis thoughtfully.  He considered their contraband - the Duchess Wilhemina Petrova Athanasia von T_, with a score more titles that must weigh heavy on an eight-year-old. As if feeling his gaze the yellow-haired girl, sitting bolt upright on a stone, looked at him briefly before fixing again on the lady's back. Her eyes shone. “I think you are going to have far more trouble getting her to stay put when this is all over.”

Madame muttered something scathing about running off with the gypsies and Aramis laughed.

A wisp of smoke caught his nose, piquant with burning leaves. He frowned for a moment at the pastoral scene, then shook his head ruefully. 

The water was cool on his shins, and the leaf-dappled sun warm on his shoulders. He bent again to his work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Milady has a fan!
> 
> I doubt Wilhemina will stick around. (I'd been trying to write the story of how they accidentally ended up with her for a while, but it didn't want to come. Probably just as well.)
> 
> Thanks for reading. If there's something in particular you'd like to see, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do.


End file.
